Edinburgh: Weak One
Edinburgh during the festival is a pretty unusual beast. Over the month of August, a city with a population of 500,000 gets around 1,500,000 visitors (a statistic I was told by someone in a pub, I'm not going to verify it, fact check it yourself if you care that much). When I first started working in the theatre industry I wasn't a fan of the festival, for a variety of reasons, I couldn't be bothered navigating my way through the tourists/flyerers/street performers, there were rarely shows that stood out to me as something I might like and (probably most importantly) there weren't that many people around that I actually knew, most of my mates were in Glasgow. Basically it all seemed like more hassle than it was worth.
These days it's a chance for me to see people that I don't much chance to see the rest of the year (thanks to the ridiculous lifestyle that comes with being a technician and trying to have a normal social life), but until this year I've still been a bit rubbish at actually going to see any shows. I decided to try and more fully embrace the festival spirit this time though, and even go so far as to attempt some review writing so here are my thoughts on the stuff I've seen so far:
.....
I haven't seen anything yet. There's a bunch of stuff I'm interested in, (which is already a step ahead of previous years) and I've got tickets booked for some stuff, but by the time my days settled down at the end of last week, the last thing I wanted to do was spend any more time in a theatre than I had to. I have been making the most of having time to hang out (drink) with friends both old and new, (the oldest is in their 50s, the newest is only 6 weeks, she was on the breast milk and pretty much drinks all day. Some from school, from work, from Australia, etc. etc.) and at my most tired I seemed to have perfected my 'Don't even fucking bother trying to give me a flyer' face! (headphones, sunglasses and a generally haunted expression, in case you're wondering).
I'm planning to review a couple of things for next week's post but for now I'll just leave you with a few things I've seen over the past week.
George Street from an angle most folk don't get to see (although can see it right now from the top of the Assembly Helter Skelter).
I don't think this needs any explanation.
And a new friend I made on my way home the other day.